"We come here to find what is new and different, but we have so much in common," said Christine McMillan, a police inspector from the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, one of 11 women from her department attending the conference. "I think coming here allows you to interact with women who are doing the same job under the same pressures."

The association, which is holding its 41st annual conference this week, has about 4,000 members worldwide and is the oldest association of female police officers. Forums will be held on domestic violence, health, diversity, elderly abuse, depression and terrorism, but many participants said that the informal discussions and international friendships they made were as important as the training sessions.

"The annual conferences create a bridge to unite hundreds of officers from every continent to provide valuable opportunities for networking, mentoring, peer support, training and the exchange of ideas and in many cases, similar obstacles," said Terrie Swann, association president.

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Too many still face discrimination and sexual harassment, she said. In the United States, women have dropped to 12 percent of the police workforce, down from 14.5 percent a decade ago, she said. The decline, she said, is partly because affirmative action programs and mandates have been dismantled.

But more women are being promoted in the United States, she said, and more are joining police forces in many countries around the world.

When McMillan joined the Trinidad and Tobago force 33 years ago, there were very few women, she said. Now, about 10 percent of the force is women, although only one is among the highest ranks.

In Kosovo, women were only allowed to join the police force in 1999. Now, 20 percent of the force is female, according to Sadete Ibrahimaj, honored by the association this year with a full scholarship to attend.

Ibrahimaj, who is an inspector in the serious crime unit, says she feels no tension with her male colleagues but has had to overcome prejudice from citizens who weren't used to seeing women in police uniforms.

The highest-ranking female members of Nepal's police force had to deal with similar social stereotypes, they said. Parbati Thapa and Bimala Thapa Sharma are the only two female police superintendents in their country, where only 3 percent of the police officers are women.

"It is a male-dominated society," said Thapa. "When we used to wear uniforms, people were surprised. Now, it is more usual."

Recruiting more women into the department is a challenge, she said, because only about 30 percent of them are educated. Some of those who are qualified feel that the life of a police officer is too dangerous and difficult, she said.

Sharma, who has been on the force about 20 years, first wanted to join the Army, she said once to the Nepali Times. But she was told women couldn't enlist. So she became a teacher and later worked as a journalist.

She has been credited with stopping currency smugglers and drug traffickers at the international airport in Kathmandu and with helping to clean up internal police corruption. Recently, she received a commendation from the king.

"For crooks, I am a cop first and then a woman," she told the Nepali newspaper.

Sunday she and Thapa stood with women from countries such as Canada, Uganda,

the Netherlands and Cambodia, talking about how they wanted to learn about new technologies and techniques that could stop the violence suffered by women.

"Most of the crimes we deal with are related to women," Thapa said. "The victims are women. We need to find a solution to domestic violence and trafficking in young girls."

Acting San Francisco Police Chief Alex Fagan greeted the conference participants Sunday morning, even joining in a spontaneous international conga line that erupted in the audience as Caribbean musicians performed on stage. He left before the Polynesian dancing.

"I've been at a lot of conferences, and this is a hell of a way to start, and it's only Sunday," said Fagan.

Participants then had a luncheon, the police officer from Tulsa next to the Sacramento sheriff's deputy, who was behind a group from Africa and near an officer from Argentina.

This week they will be able to attend training courses on a wide array of subjects, including gender bias, survivors of law enforcement suicide, Internet child crime, transgender community awareness, the emerging role of women in India's police force and what it's like when both partners in a relationship are on the police force.